Network Marketing -- Creating Streams Of Income

"Network marketing" used to be a dirty word. It used to mean MLM. Period. Not so any more. "Network marketing" is a whole new game. Simply put, it is a dynamic way of building an internet business with multiple streams of income.

For example, let's take a basic online store. Perhaps a book store specializing in romance novels. Doesn't sound too profitable, does it. Let's see what this store can do:

o AdSense o Charge for editing books, perhaps even for reviewing them and featuring them on the site o Put Amazon ads on site o eBay ads for all things bookish o Write your own ebook on how to get published and sell it o Affiliate with a company that will print hard copies of the books o Feature art pertaining to your books or the writers o Find other affiliates that have bookish things, perhaps even bells, books and candles o Locate affiliate for the "romance" of the website. Perhaps flowers or chocolates or diamonds. o Sell the books themselves!

Now, instead of just one possible income stream, there are ten! Now THIS is a real business.

In building your Network Marketing business, there are two things you need to keep in mind, no matter what your product area: find the right niche, and diversify your streams of income. If you can accomplish those two things, you can have a successful online business.

Here's a quick summary of some of the income streams that you might consider for your website:

EBOOKS. Write your own, or see what others have written. "Jiffy books" do pretty well. These are short, 10-20 page ebooks, that sell for under $5. Also check ClickBank. ClickBank authors tend to be pretty generous with commissions, so if there is a good ebook there, promote it. You can also do both: write your own AND feature ebooks that others have written.

PUT ADS ON YOUR SITE. AdSense is the biggest company doing this, but there are others. You place blocks of ads on your site. They are easy to set up. All you do is decide how you want the ads to look, and place the code in the right spot. Easy peasy. Whenever anyone clicks on these, you get paid. The rate of pay is determined by your topic, and the page the ad is on.

AFFILIATE MARKETING. Another company has a product you like. You see they have an affiliate program. That means that you can show it and sell it on your site. Every time you make a sale, you get a commission. The money transaction is handled by the merchant, so you don't need a shopping cart. Check out Commission Junction for a slew of affiliate based products. You will need to sign up, but it is free. Linkshare is another big company. Also check out Affiliate Programs and the Direct Selling Association.

CREATE A MEMBERSHIP SITE. Do you have special knowledge in a unique field? Let members pay to join and offer them premium knowledge, products and networking.

BRING EBAY INTO YOUR WEBSITE. You can set up your own eBay store, featuring the types of products that your visitors would like. A cake decorating site could sell molds for devils on the page about devils food cakes! eBay has so much to offer that they sky is the limit.

CREATE AND SELL YOUR OWN TRAINING PROGRAM DVDs. Sometimes visual works better than written material. If that is the case for you, create your own training program. You can sell them as a download, or in hard case DVD, or both.

CREATE YOUR OWN SHOPPING MALL. Thousands of different kinds of products lurk in different shopping malls, from teddy bears to samurai swords. Track down your vendors and create your own very unique shopping. Once you start looking, you will be amazed at the variety of product you can offer.

JOIN A TRAVEL COMPANY. For all travel sites and geographically oriented sites, this is a must. And it's a nice source of income. A travel site is a natural for network marketing, and would include many of the other streams of income that we note here as well.

PROMOTE YOUR SERVICE BUSINESS ONLINE OR SELL YOUR OWN PRODUCT ONLINE. From massage parlors (the legit kind) to dentists to attorneys, there just isn't a corner of the business world that couldn't benefit from a good website. Have online coupons for your customers, both from your business and from affiliated businesses. Or do you create jewelry? Write children's books? Design stained glass doors? The internet is made for you. Nowhere else can you reach such a wide audience, at such a low price. And it's not just for "creative" folks. One of the most successful webmasters I know sells kits for people to set up their own concrete driveway contractor business. Honest.

GENERATE FINDERS FEES. Real estate finders fees may or may not be an option in your area. But if you bring an artist a new client, that should certainly generate a finder's fee. Look for companies in the same general area of interest as your website and cut your own deal.

ACT AS AN AGENT FOR OTHERS. A very successful lady books rooms in local inns in a remote island, and earns very nice commissions doing it. Her site attracts the guests, and she forwards the requests for rooms to her clients. Another webmaster books trips to Australia. He doesn't actually do the booking himself; he just forward the request to other agents, and collects his commission. Both are great network marketing options.

SELL ADVERTISING ON YOUR SITE. Unlike a newspaper, you've got all the space you want. So sell some of it.

CREATE YOUR OWN AUCTION. When you've got a specialized product, let others bid on it. Setting up a whole auction site like eBay is very expensive, but you can do "blind bidding", i.e., let people submit bids without knowing what others are bidding. Results can be quite nice with this approach.

You want one more way to make money with your Network Marketing online business? Okay ...

MLM. Multi level marketing is not always the best option. But once you find a good company to work with, it cannot be duplicated anywhere.

This is truly the beginning of making money in your Network Marketing online business. I am continually amazed at the creativity of entrepreneurs who earn money with a Network Marketing online business. Everything I mentioned above has at least a dozen variations on it. And there are dozens and dozens more ways to make money.

Remember, too, that none of these will do you any good at all without traffic to your site. First build your traffic. Then you can sell. Statistically, only about 2% to 5% of visitors will buy anything. So, based on your product mix, figure out how much traffic you need to generate to be successful.

Build your monetization slowly. And don't be afraid to fire companies that don't work out. There are lots and lots of choices. Find your best matches.

About the Author

MaryAnn Shank, webmaster of Your Network Marketing Coach and Business Plan Master, has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs develop internet businesses. Her extensive background and generosity of spirit are evident in the wide ranging information she provides on her websites.